by Bryan Sykes
About the Book
When the first Roman soldiers invaded Britain in 54 BC, the Isles were inhabited by Celtic tribes. Five hundred years later, the Romans were succeeded by the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings and then the Normans. History has long taught us that the Celts were wiped out by the more sophisticated aggressors, but Bryan Sykes, the world’s first genetic archaeologist, found that the evidence told rather a different story.
In a major research programme, he and his team at Oxford University tested the DNA of over 10,000 volunteers from across Britain and Ireland in order to pin down the genetic make-up of 21st century Britain.
What do our genes tell us about our tribal past? Did the invaders keep mostly to themselves or are the modern people of the Isles a delicious genetic cocktail? And most importantly, where do you fit in?
A gripping detective story backed up by fascinating science, Blood of the Isles casts new light on our ancestry and reveals what our genes can tell us about our attitudes to ourselves, each other, and to our past.
‘Sykes’ scientific presentation is chatty and readable’
Sunday Times
‘Professor Sykes has an admirably free and easy style for an academic’
Daily Mail
Bryan Sykes, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Oxford, has had a remarkable scientific career. He was the first to discover, in 1989, how to recover DNA from human remains thousands of years old and he has been called in as the leading international authority to examine several high-profile cases, such as the Ice Man, Cheddar Man and the many individuals claiming to be surviving members of the Russian Royal Family. Since then he has worked extensively on the origins of peoples from all over the world, using DNA from living people as well as from archaeological remains. He proved that the origin of Polynesians lay in Asia, not America, and discovered that the ancestors of most Europeans were hunter-gatherers from before the last Ice Age. He also showed that most Europeans trace their maternal genetic ancestry back to only seven women. On the male side he was the first to show the close connection between DNA and surnames, a discovery that is revolutionizing genealogy.
Bryan Sykes is the founder and chairman of Oxford Ancestors (http://www.oxfordancestors.com), which uses DNA to help explore your own genetic roots, including the tribal affinities described in Blood of the Isles.
He is also the author of The Seven Daughters of Eve and Adam’s Curse.
In a unique first, Bryan Sykes is simultaneously publishing the detailed genetic results that led to his conclusions on the internet at www.bloodoftheisles.net.
www.rbooks.co.uk
Also by Bryan Sykes
THE SEVEN DAUGHTERS OF EVE
ADAM’S CURSE
and published by Corgi Books
BLOOD OF THE ISLES
Exploring the genetic roots of our
tribal history
Bryan Sykes
This eBook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
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BLOOD OF THE ISLES
A CORGI BOOK: 9780552154659
First published in Great Britain
in 2006 by Bantam Press
a division of Transworld Publishers
Corgi edition published 2007
Copyright© Bryan Sykes 2006
Maps by Red Lion Maps
Bryan Sykes has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
This book is a work of non-fiction and based on the experiences and recollections of the author. The author has stated to the publishers that the contents of this book are true.
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
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2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3
To my son Richard, companion on very many journeys
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
List of illustrations
Maps
Prologue
1. Twelve Thousand Years of Solitude
2. Who Do We Think We Are?
3. The Resurgent Celts
4. The Skull Snatchers
5. The Blood Bankers
6. The Silent Messengers
7. The Nature of the Evidence
8. Ireland
9. The DNA of Ireland
10. Scotland
11. The Picts
12. The DNA of Scotland
13. Wales
14. The DNA of Wales
15. England
16. Saxons, Danes, Vikings and Normans
17. The DNA of England
18. The Blood of the Isles
Appendix
Plates
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research that led to Blood of the Isles was a team effort. I had a wonderful team both in the field and in the lab. Eileen Hickey, Emilce Vega, Jayne Nicholson, Catherine Irven, Zehra Mustafa, John Loughlin, Kay Chapman, Kate Smalley, Helen Chandler and Martin Richards all criss-crossed the Isles in pursuit of DNA, while Lorraine Southam, Sara Goodacre and Vincent Macaulay helped to tease out its secrets in the lab. I relied on many people’s generosity in the search for our origins. The directors and staff of the Scottish Blood Transfusion Service deserve special mention for their enthusiastic backing and for their tolerance as we invaded their otherwise tranquil donor sessions. The head teachers and the staff of the very many schools we visited, particularly in Wales and Shetland, I thank for the same reasons. Talking of Shetland, I must thank Beryl Smith, who organized all our visits there in advance. But, of course, none of this would have been remotely possible without the consent and co-operation of the many thousands of volunteers who agreed to having their DNA taken and analysed.
Among professional colleagues, I am particularly grateful to Dan Bradley of Trinity College Dublin for advance access to Irish genetic data, though I should stress that I have only used published material here and also that any conclusions are my own and not necessarily Dan Bradley’s. So blame me and not him. I have also benefited from the publications of Jim Wilson and Mark Thomas from University College London, who have produced very useful data from parts of Britain. Among my friends and colleagues in Oxford, William James has, as usual, been a rich source of ideas and creative conversation. I must also mention Robert Young, recently of Wadham College, who introduced me to the racial mythology of the English, a subject of which I was almost completely unaware until he sent me a reprint of his work. Norman Davies, a fellow of my own college, Wolfson, was not only a source of bountiful historical references in his magisterial The Isles – a History (never has a book been m
ore thoroughly thumbed), but also helped me resolve the tricky issue of what to call my own book.
But words are not enough. Books need midwives before they see the light of day. My agent Luigi Bonomi has kept me going throughout with his irrepressible enthusiasm and I am, once again, very fortunate to have in my editors Sally Gaminara and Simon Thorogood not just consummate professionalism but great encouragement as well. Thanks too to Brenda Updegraff for her immaculate copy-editing and, as before, to Julie Sheppard who rapidly transformed my erratic handwriting into legible text.
But most of all I thank the Muse without whom nothing flows.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
English supporter at the World Cup, 2006:
© Tony Quinn/internationalsportsimages.com/Corbis
Brutus the Trojan Sets Sail for Britain, 15th-century manuscript illumination by Master Wistace from ‘The History of the Kings of Britain’ by Geoffrey of Monmouth: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris/The Bridgeman Art Library; coronation throne of Edward I: © Angelo Hornak/Corbis; Tintagel Castle, Cornwall: © English Heritage/Heritage-Images; Merlin before King Vortigern, manuscript illumination from ‘Prophecies of Merlin’ by Geoffrey of Monmouth, c. 1250: © The British Library/Heritage-Images; The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon (detail) by Edward Burne-Jones, 1881–98: Museo de Arte, Ponce, Puerto Rico/The Bridgeman Art Library; Glastonbury Abbey, Somerset, detail of the ruins: © Nigel Reed/Alamy.
Head dress found at Starr Carr, Yorkshire, c. 7500 BC: British Museum, London; Maiden Castle, near Dorchester, Dorset, c. 3000 BC: Collections/Peter Thomas; inner circle of Stonehenge, Wiltshire, c. 2800-1500 BC: © Royalty-Free/Corbis; air view of Richborough Castle, near Sandwich, Kent, AD 43–287 : Collections/David Bowie; sword-belt buckle from the ship burial at Sutton Hoo, early 7th century, British Museum: © 2006 The British Museum; Anglo-Saxon iron helmet from the ship burial at Sutton Hoo, early 7th century, British Museum: © Visual Arts Library (London)/Alamy; detail from the Bayeux tapestry, c. 1080; © Nik Wheeler/Corbis.
Callanish standing stones, Lewis, Outer Hebrides, c. 3000 BC: © Adam Woolfitt/Corbis; Skara Brae, Orkney, c. 3000 BC: © Kevin Schafer/Corbis; burial chamber at Maes Howe, Orkney, c. 2750 BC: © Crown copyright reproduced by courtesy of Historic Scotland; Jarlshof, Shetland, 2400 BC: HIE/stockscotland; broch at Mousa, Shetland Islands, 1st century AD: © Peter Hulme/Corbis; Hadrian’s Wall, Northumberland, AD 122: © David Ball/Corbis; Pictish stone in Aberlemno, Perth & Kinross, c. AD 750: Collections/Michael Jenner.
John Beddoe, frontispiece to his book Memories of Eighty Years, 1910; ‘A Celtic groupe’, from Robert Knox The Races of Men, 1869; engraved portrait of Robert Knox: Wellcome Library, London; loose leaf from one of Beddoe’s albums, 1882: Royal Anthropological Institute, London.
Adrian Targett with the skeleton of Cheddar Man, March 1997: swn.com/Darren Fletcher; drilling Cheddar man’s tooth and Professor Chris Stringer with Cheddar Man jawbone: both courtesy Bryan Sykes; DNA sequence chromatogram: © Mark Harmel/Alamy.
Lindisfarne Priory and view of the seashore, Holy Island, Northumberland: both photos courtesy Bryan Sykes; Gokstad Ship, Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, c. AD 850–900: © Richard T. Nowitz/Corbis; Jarl squad, Lerwick, Shetland Isles, January 2000: © Reuters/Corbis; woman on Lewis: courtesy Bryan Sykes.
Neolithic cromlech, Carreg Sampson, Pembrokeshire: Collections/Simon McBride; Roman barracks and latrines, Caerleon, Gwent, 1st century AD: Collections/Robert Estall; Offa’s Dyke near Knighton, Radnor, late 8th century AD: © Homer Sykes/Corbis; obverse of silver coin of Offa, AD 757–796: Ancient Art & Architecture Collection; aerial view of Pembroke Castle, late 12th to 13th century: © Jason Hawkes/Corbis; young Welsh fan, Canberra Stadium, Rugby World Cup, 2003: Gareth Copley/PA/Empics.
Burial chamber, Newgrange, County Meath, 3200 BC: Mike Bunn/Irish Image Collection; Mizzen Head, County Cork: Collections/Brian Shuel; Mound of the Hostages, Hill of Tara, County Meath, c. 2000 BC: George Munday/Irish Image Collection; the Broighter ship, gold, 1st century BC, found at Broighter, County Derry: Werner Forman Archive/National Museum of Ireland; Cú Chulainn: Collections/Robert Bird; spectators at the St Patrick’s Day Parade, New York, 2006: © Justin Lane/epa/Corbis.
Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff: © Photolibrary Wales; pupils at Moy School, Lahinch, County Clare: © Stephanie Maze/Corbis.
PROLOGUE
This is the very first book to be written about the genetic history of Britain and Ireland using DNA as its main source of information. It is the culmination of an ambition, almost a dream, that I first had ten years ago. Having successfully used DNA to solve several outstanding issues about the human past on a continental scale, I wanted to push the method to its limits and dissect the intimate genetic make-up of a smaller region. And where better to do this than in my own back yard, so to speak. My own country, one that I share with 60 million others and with an even greater number whose roots are here but who now live overseas. And what a land it is, full of myth and legend, brimming with archaeological treasures and set down in a rich treasury of historical documents.
For its new, scientific content, Blood of the Isles relies primarily on the results of a systematic DNA survey that I and my research team in Oxford University have undertaken over the last ten years, a survey involving more than 10,000 volunteers from every part of ‘the Isles’. The results, explained in the book, exceeded even my most optimistic expectations of the power of genetics to make a real contribution to our knowledge of a small region.
In Blood of the Isles, I approach the DNA evidence in the same way as others who write about the past using their different specialities – material artefacts, written documents, human remains and so on. The most important thing about the genetic evidence is that it is entirely independent of these other sources. It does not rely on them. However, to use genetics most effectively to fill in any picture of the past, it helps immensely to have this abundance of other evidence, and I use this resource throughout the book. Nevertheless, when you have read Blood of the Isles I hope you will agree that from now on genetics can take its proper place alongside history and archaeology as one of the principal lenses through which to view the past.
I have written two other books on DNA and human evolution: The Seven Daughters of Eve and Adam’s Curse. You may have read them, but I certainly do not assume that you have. You don’t need to in order to follow the story of Blood of the Isles perfectly well. However, there are some topics which are covered more extensively in the earlier books than they are here, but which to repeat here in full would be unnecessary.
I have deliberately avoided, as far as possible, putting technical data into the text. A little is absolutely essential, but too much soon disrupts the flow. For those readers who want to delve more deeply into the supporting scientific evidence I have added an Appendix and, for real enthusiasts, I am publishing additional material on the website www.bloodoftheisles.net.
Finally, a word about the title. I use ‘the Isles’ rather than ‘Britain’ or ‘UK’, to avoid the pitfalls that follow from political boundaries much more recently drawn than the time depth covered by this book. Many in Ireland are not British and the Irish Republic is not part of the United Kingdom. But to leave them out would be absurd. Ours is a shared history. Throughout the book ‘Ireland’ includes Northern Ireland and ‘Britain’ embraces Scotland, Wales and England.
Some names have been changed to preserve confidentiality.
1
TWELVE THOUSAND YEARS OF
SOLITUDE
Everything was ready. I selected one of the diamond-tipped bits from the sterile rack and tightened it into the jaws of the high-speed drill. Turning the dial up to 500 revolutions a second, I looked carefully to see that the spinning drill was centralized in the chuck. There must not be any mistakes, especially today. In my left hand, I picked up the jaw bone and turned it so that the outer surface of the first molar tooth was facing me. I moved the jaw under the magnifier and brought the rotating drill to within a mil
limetre of the enamel surface of the tooth. The tooth that had never bitten into a pizza, nor crunched a piece of celery. The tooth that I was about to drill into was 12,000 years old. The last food this tooth had touched was the flesh of a reindeer or wild horse. It was the tooth of a young man, about twenty years old when he died. This man was a hunter, one of the first people to arrive in Britain since the end of the last Ice Age.
The skeleton of the young man had been dug out of the limestone caves of Cheddar Gorge in Somerset in 1986. Ten years later, in the autumn of 1996, I had brought his lower jaw, with the beautifully preserved teeth still embedded, to my laboratory in Oxford. I was about to attempt to recover the DNA, the genetic essence, of its original owner, trapped in the dentine beneath the hard enamel which had encased and protected it for thousands of years. As the drill made contact with the enamel surface, I steadied my left arm on the lab bench and pressed the bit into the tooth. The whining pitch of the drill came down slightly as it cut into the enamel. This was a good sign. The enamel was not too soft. That would have been a sure sign of biological decay, which would have dashed any chance of finding intact DNA. Neither was the tooth granite-hard. That would have meant that all the organic remains, including the DNA, had literally turned to stone. The Cheddar tooth was somewhere in between, neither too soft, nor too hard.
After a few seconds, the drill had cut through the enamel layer and into the dentine which lay behind. I could feel the drop in pressure as the tip of the drill moved into the softer dentine, and heard its pitch rise as the speed increased. A second or two later, I caught the scent of burning – the same unforgettable smell that instantly recalled dread visits to the dentist and the fillings of a sweet-toothed youth. It was the smell of burning teeth. This was the unmistakable scent of vaporizing protein, and the moment I caught the smell of it coming from the ancient tooth my spirits rose. From that moment on, I was sure I would find his DNA, for if the protein which was being vaporized by the drill had survived for 12,000 years, then there was every chance that his DNA would have done so too. Both are biological molecules subject to the same laws of age and decay.